How many love to climb to the top of a ladder to do work, on the house, on outdoor projects?
I’m personally not a big fan of this activity. I enjoy doing the work, but not the feeling of seeing the ground far away, of feeling unbalanced perching on the ladder steps, and of the strange disconnect between reaching up with my hands to work while my feet feel far below.
This week in our Torah portion our ancestor Jacob sees a ladder in his dream, and this ladder inspires him, makes him feel connected with God, as he sees angels ascending and descending the ladder to the heavens.
What is potentially uncomfortable in using a ladder here on earth disappears in this image. Here, our ancestor Jacob is escaping from home, hoping to find extended family where he can live, and praying God will guide and protect him on the way.
At a moment when his life is all turbulence, disconnected from home, alone at night on a road, the ladder is the symbol of connection and comfort.
Ibn Ezra explains how the great Rabbi Yehoshua believed the ladder serves Jacob as a way of sending his prayers upward to God with God’s promise of help and guidance flowing down, just as the angels ascend and descend.
At moments of struggle and loss, at times when we can summon up neither the right questions nor the right answers, the image of the ladder reassures us of our eternal link between ourselves and God, that God’s angels are always cycling out of our world and back into our world.
We called to the angels at the beginning of our service tonight as we said Shalom alechem malachey ha’shalom, welcome to you, angels of peace, because we may find at times that much as we pray, as we call out to God, we feel our prayers are hitting the ceiling and not going further, and the angels carry our prayers, or perhaps when we pray we create an angel who travels up the ladder with our prayer.
As we continue our service tonight, let’s focus on which prayers are speaking to our hearts tonight, and when we find those words that we’re focusing on, that are catching our attention, let’s take a moment to see those words, those feelings, rising up through the ceiling and out into the world. Whether we’re sending a prayer to someone we know who’s in need, or wishing protection for our military servicepeople after the two horrific shootings on naval bases this week, or we simply need to hand over a burden to God that we’re carrying, see the prayer lift up and out – see the image of the ladder.
And remember that in the classic wonderful stories of the wise people of Chelm, they built their synagogue without a roof, why did they do such a thing? To make sure their prayers could rise up and reach God.
